The present invention involves a rotatable curling iron.
Numerous different styles of curling irons have been available and utilized for many years. In the operation all such curling irons, the end of the hair is clamped between a heated cylindrical barrel and a clamp member which is contoured so as to partially wrap around the heated cylindrical barrel. The hair is then wrapped up around the heated cylinder and clamp member for applying heat to the wrapped hair so as to form a curl or wave within the hair. Once the curl is formed after sufficient heat applied, the hair is unwrapped from around the heated cylinder and clamp member. This wrapping and unwrapping operation, however, is often difficult to manipulate since the curling iron is operated with merely holding it in a single hand of the user and it is, therefore, necessary for the user to turn the curling iron with the use of only a single hand.
Exemplary of such prior art curling irons are those curling irons shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,143 to Federico et al. and 4,365,140 to Bast et al. In addition to the curling iron shown in these patents, in several curling irons the arm for controlling the movement of the clamp is elongated so as to extend substantially the same length as the main handle attached to the heated cylinder. In this second type of arrangement, the clamp member is not spring biased towards the heated cylinder but the clamp member is operated by manipulation of the elongated arm attached to the clamp member. This type of arrangement is referred to as a Marcel grip curling iron.
In all of these previous curling irons, however, the handles, both the main handle attached to the heated cylinder and the handle attached to the clamp are fixed relative to the heated cylinder and clamp member, respectively.
In order to facilitate the manipulation of a hair curling brush, various embodiments have been developed for enabling hair to be curled around a brush member and then either the barrel with the teeth are rotated relative to the handle for enabling the hair to be readily unwrapped from the brush member by rotation of the barrel or alternatively the teeth are rotated and drawn into an inter chamber within the brush member so that the barrel can be slid out of the curl. Exemplary of this latter type of embodiment is the retractable curling brush disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,086.